Scaling Relations for Intermediate-Energy Proton-Nucleus Reactions with Small Energy Losses

Abstract

A kinematic scaling system, based on successes found for inclusive electron-nucleus continuum spectra, is developed and applied to (p, px) and (p, nx) data at beam energies from 346 to 1600 MeV. The emphasis is on ejectiles with the highest energies at small angles since these are the particles able to induce further reactions in thick samples of interest for current and future accelerator-driven neutron sources. The limits of the method are explored, and successes are used to identify gaps in the difficult data sets available. Scaling successes are able to allow interpolations and extrapolations needed for applications. Details of the method are presented in appendixes.